Collaboration with The Meat Club
Dish 1 - Homemade Beef Burger 
Dish 2 - Apple Sage & Rosemary Pork Sausage
Dish 3 - Chorizo & Beef Sausage Meatballs in Tomato & Creamy Sauce with Fusilli Pasta


My last dish that I'm sharing is this gorgeous lamb chop imported directly from Australia! All the premium quality produce from The Meat Club arrive here in Singapore fresh and chilled and not frozen. Apparently when you freeze meat, the cellular structure of the protein is compromised, causing the meat to "bleed" when cooked and thus resulting in less tender and juicy texture. The meat produce from The Meat Club are specially vacuum packed which helps seal the freshness and quality.

The Meat Club actually has an interesting subscription service where if you opt for an Auto-Pilot service, your selection of meat will be delivered in line with their import cycle (every 28 days) ensuring that you get the freshest batch of produce with a longer shelf life monthly. That said, they do offer one-off, just in time delivery for meat as well. Visit their website to find out more!


Mentioned in some of my previous posts that I'm interested in western food and plating recently, so even before I started thinking about how to cook the lamb chops, I was already thinking about how to present the dish and the accompaniment :) But since I'm a noob in this area, it was rather challenging!


Should I serve the lamb chops with mashed potatos or pureed cauliflower or pumpkin, or roasted vegetables? Eventually I decided not to over-complicate and just go with a simple Quinoa Salad which is easy to put together.


As for the lamb chops, usually I would just season with salt and black pepper, pan-grill and eat with lots of mint sauce. But this time, I made a marinate using mint leaves, rosemary, garlic, caramelised balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sea salt, black pepper and lemon juice. Just blend all the ingredients, rub them on both sides of the lamb chops and let the meat marinate for thirty minutes to an hour.

Thereafter, pan-sear the lamb chops for about 2-3 mins each side and transfer to the oven to bake for 6-8 mins.


Balsamic, Mint & Rosemary Lambchops with Quinoa Salad
(serves 2)

Ingredients
Lamb chop

• 4pcs lamb chops
• 12g fresh mint leaves
• 4g fresh rosemary
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 tbsp caramelised balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• Juice from 1/2 lemon

Quinoa Salad

• 1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 1 cup water
• Bunch of rocket leaves
• 1/4pc carrot, shredded
• 30g cranberries
• 12 olives, chopped
• Caramelised balsamic vinegar, lemon juice

Steps

1. Add mint leaves, rosemary, garlic, vinegar, olive oil, seas salt, black pepper and lemon juice into a food processor or electric chopper, blend into a coarse paste.
2. Rub the marinate on both sides of the lamb chops and let the meat rest for 30-60mins.
3. To cook, heat a grill pan with olive oil on stove till very hot, add the lamb chops and grill for 2-3 mins each side.
4. Remove grill pan from stove and place it into the oven (pre-heated) and bake for 6-8 mins.
5. Once done, let the meat rest for a few mins before plating.
6. To cook quinoa, place water and quinoa into a pot and cook on medium low heat. Stir the quinoa occasionally. Once the water is almost absorbed by the quinoa, turn off the heat. The cooked quinoa looks "popped" open revealing the germ of the kernel.
7. To make salad, toss cooked quinoa, rocket leaves, shredded carrot, cranberries, chopped olives, lemon juice and caramelised balsamic vinegar together till well-mixed.
8. To serve, divide the quinoa salad onto the serving plates, rest the lamb chops on the salad, garnish with some mint leaves. cranberries and balsamic. Ready to serve.

I love how the dish turned out! The lamb chops were succulent and flavourful without any gamey smell and the quinoa salad was a nice pairing. I think I should do this more often!


With this dish, it concludes my collaboration with The Meat Club. Really appreciate the opportunity to try out the premium quality produce that the company offers. Do check out their website for exclusive promotions and details!

I'm pleased to introduce another new Bake Cheese Tart flavour, the Matcha Latte Cheese Tart!!

So far I've attempted the original (Check them out - Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV), Thai Milk Tea,  Pandan Coconut as well as Coconut flavours.

Wonder why I took so long to make this matcha flavour? Our family loves green tea as well as matcha and we drink this beverage on a regular basis. Oh well, better late than never right?


Actually I was conducting fridge-clearing "exercise", have half a tub of mascarpone cheese, few pieces of cream cheese, some milk, a bit of matcha powder, so yep, why not give it a go?

In fact, the basic recipe is there, it's just a matter of experimenting with different flavour and proportion.


I have 2 types of matcha in my fridge. 1 type is matcha with green tea, the taste is lighter, suitable for drinking only. The other type is pure matcha powder, taste stronger with distinct vegetal aroma, suitable for drinking and baking/cooking. I use the pure matcha powder for the cheese custard as I prefer a stronger note of matcha.


Bake Matcha Latte Cheese Tart
13 petite size tarts - 5cm round cutter/2.5cm base tart cas
8 small size tarts, using 6cm fluted cutter/3.5cm base tart case

Ingredients

(A) Tart pastry

• 115g plain flour
• 5g matcha powder (about 2 tsp)
• 10g caster sugar
• 60g salted butter, cut into cubes, cold
• 3-4 tsp fresh milk

(B) Matcha latte cheese custard

• 100g fresh milk
• 85g cream cheese
• 50g mascarpone cheese
• 40g salted butter
• 50g caster sugar
• 3-4g matcha powder 
• 10g corn starch
• 1 egg (about 50g nett weight)
• Egg wash for brushing sides of tart pastry 

Steps

(A) Tart pastry

1. Sift plain flour and matcha powder into a large bowl, add caster sugar and mix well.
2. Add cold salted butter cubes. Using finger tips, break the butter and rub the butter into the flour mixture, until it resembles bread crumbs.
3. Add 3-4 tsp of fresh milk to the mixture, use a scrapper to help with the mixing.
4. The mixture will come together and thereafter, use hands to form the mixture into a pliable dough.
5. Knead the dough gently into a ball. Place the dough between 2 pieces of plastic sheet.
6. Roll the dough to about 4-5mm thickness and place in fridge to rest for about 1 hour.

(B) Matcha latte cheese custard

1. Add fresh milk, cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, salted butter and caster sugar into a small pot.
2. Place the pot into a large, shallow pan/pot with barely simmering water. This is the bain marie method, to create a gentle and uniform heat for cooking custard. Keep stirring the mixture till everything is melted.
3. Add sifted matcha powder. Mix till well-blended. The matcha powder may not dissolve fully.
4. Add sifted corn starch. Mix till well-blended, the mixture will thicken slowly.
5. Add the egg and keep stirring till well-blended, the mixture will further thicken into custard.
6. Stop cooking once the desired thickness of custard is reached (shorter cooking time - runny texture, longer cooking time - gooey texture)
7. Sift the custard for a smoother texture (as they may be some fine lumps and grainy bits in the custard).
8. Cover the custard with a clingwrap on the surface and let the custard cool down completely. 
9. Fill the custard into a piping bag. Set aside.

(C) Assembly

1. Remove the dough from fridge. Dust a baking mat (and rolling pin) with flour, use the round cutter to stamp the dough.
2. Use a metal scrapper (dust with flour) to lift up the cut dough.
3. Place the cut dough over the tart case and gently press it downwards.
4. Using finger tips, gently press and mold the dough into the tart case. Use a fork to poke holes at the base of the tart pastry.
5. Bake the tarts at 180C, fan mode for 10mins. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool.
6. After the tart cases are cooled slightly, remove them from the tins and let cool completely before use.
7. Preheat oven to 235C conventional mode. 
8. Pipe the matcha latte cheese custard into the tart pastry, shape slightly domed. Use a spatula to smoothen the top if necessary. Brush the sides of the tart pastry evenly with egg wash.
9. Bake the tarts at 235C conventional mode, 5-6 mins for petite size, 7-8 mins for small size.
10. Once baked, remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool. Best eaten warm, freshly baked.  

** I made a video of tart making in the Coconut Cheese Tart post. As the steps are quite similar, re-post here for reference.